


genji

by hyphae



Series: Blackwatch [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 11:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13500738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyphae/pseuds/hyphae
Summary: Jesse McCree is on a Blackwatch operation to monitor Shimada Castle, for possible retrieval of an asset.





	genji

It wasn't his first time keeping watch on the place, but this time it seemed like it was for real. Around him, the water thundered down, and the clang of metal and shouts still emanated from deep in the Shimada Castle.

Jesse was perched on a stone ledge just outside of the castle, out of sight of any guards or inhabitants. There weren't any this late at night anyway, save for the two brothers, dueling to the death it seemed, inside the shrine room. He waited as wood splintered and cries of pain carried out of the castle with the wind; he waited as the noises died down, to some mumbled speech, and footsteps as one person left the room. And then, silence.

"It's over," he radioed in to Commander Reyes.  
  
"Go check it out," the deep voice on the other end replied.  
  
"Alright alright," Jesse tsked in annoyance but hopped off his perch and began to edge along the walls toward the inner shrine room of the castle.

He checked both corners before he entered the room. It was brutal sight. Nothing in the place looked unbroken. Wood was splintered, on the floor, the walls, everywhere. The tapestry was stained with bright blood, which was dragged in a trail out of the room, toward an exit to the left.  
  
He can't lose track of the asset. The brother may come back for him. Blackwatch needed to procure this asset while he believed they were his only chance. The exit out of the temple was to an awning overlooking a rocky slope, grown wild with grasses and flowers, all slippery with the rain. "Shit," Jesse said, and vaulted over the railing to start his very slow descent.

He nearly lost his balance when he hit the black lump. It groaned. Jesse edged his way to a better angle beside it to take a good look. This was a man once, wasn't it?  
  
"You're a Shimada ninja," he told the half-dead boy.  
  
"Unngg," he replied, his eyes focusing and unfocusing in turn.  
  
"Jeez," Jesse said. "Your brother really was trying to kill you."  
  
He got a half laugh out of the half-dead man, who immediately recoiled in the pain that a laugh had cost him.  
  
Jesse meanwhile was unpacking a black piece of fabric, which he rolled the boy into, with no resistance, and hoisted onto his back. "Resource recovered," he said to Reyes, and began the long trip out of Shimada castle, quietly even with carrying what remains of Genji Shimada in a sack, to some place Blackwatch could pick them both up.

 

\--  
  
Genji was put under the care of Angela Ziegler. Jesse knew that she was an amazing doctor who's won a ton of awards for being nice, or whatever. He overheard Dr. Ziegler and Reyes arguing in the hallways sometimes, and sometimes in more private offices but still audible through the walls. She was clearly against the idea of making a soldier out of the half-dead boy from the castle. Was he really that big of a deal? He got cut in half by his brother so he couldn't have been that amazing. "Civilian grade!" She was always repeating firmly, and loudly, at him. "The basic, civilian grade prosthetics, until he fully recovers."  
  
They didn't let anybody in to see Genji for weeks. Jesse dropped by the way you watch a bonfire burn or ships on the horizon. It was an ever changing scene of doctors and nurses hunched over the operating table. During lull times, it would be a battered remnant of a boy lying on a soft bank of white sheets, peaceful, his eyes closed like he was sleeping.  
  
The first time Genji woke up the alarms had brought both Dr. Ziegler and Commander Reyes into the room in an instant. Jesse looked on between the shoulders of two of the nurses.  
  
"Where is my brother?" Genji asked.  
  
"Home. He believes you are dead." Reyes took control of this first interaction. "It may be good if he keeps thinking that way."  
  
Genji looked at Reyes's military attire, and around at the medical staff, and gave two pained chuckles. "And what do you want from me?"  
  
Dr. Ziegler interjected whatever Reyes might have said. "Just to recover, Genji. When you're well, we can talk about other things." And she shot a glare at Commander Reyes, who closed his mouth. "Come, Mr. Reyes, we still have to these draft policy documents for Blackwatch," she said, ushering him out of the room. She turned back to Genji as she left. "Call me if you need anything," she said. Then the doctor and the commander left, and Jesse heard her scolding him down the hallway.  
  
The other medical staff had started checking various dials and meters around Genji, who looked perplexed. "Call her... if I need anything," he repeated slowly.  
  
Jesse peeked over the foot of the bed. "Her name's Angela. Angela Ziegler."  
  
Genji stared at him. His eyes slowly wrinkle in suspicion as he struggles to form the words. "Who... the hell... are you?"  
  
"I'm Jesse," Jesse cracked a grin. "I was the one who dragged you out of that hole in the ground where I found you, bleeding like a stuck pig."  
  
Genji rolled his eyes and leaned back on the pillowcase. "Didn't need your help."  
  
"Yeah, you did. You were almost dead. Did your brother do that to you?" Jesse pressed on like a kid at a carnival.  
  
Genji rolled over. "Go away," he said, his voice muffled by the sheets. Jesse watched him for a few minutes to see if he would turn back over. He was shooed out of the room by one of the nurses.

 

\--  
  
When Genji was transferred out of the medbay Jesse found less excuses to see him. He had his assignments to do, although once between missions he found Genji while making a trip through the physiotherapy wing.  
  
"Hey, ninja boy!" He called out.  
  
Genji had looked up and made too abrupt a motion, which sent him crashing down to the padded floor. As his physiotherapist hurried over to help, Genji looked over at Jesse and answered, "Hey asshole!"  
  
Jesse ducked his head and winced but he was cackling as he ran through the hallway.  
  
It was a few weeks later when Commander Reyes pulled Jesse aside suddenly to a hidden corner outside of a meeting room, and told him to wait, and hurried off. He didn't have too long to wait before he heard the noises of Commander Reyes opening the door for Dr. Ziegler to enter, and then a third party. Someone closed the door to the meeting room. Jesse could still hear, from a vent overhead.  
  
The identity of the third party became apparent when Dr. Ziegler said, "Genji, would you like a seat?"  
  
Then the voice of Reyes, instantly all business. "Genji Shimada, we want you to work for our organization."  
  
"I knew it was something like this," Genji said humourlessly. "You saved me so that I would be indebted to your organization."  
  
"Actually, you are free to make any choice you like." Dr. Ziegler spoke up. "I have made it /very/ clear to Commander Reyes here," and Jesse could almost hear the glare that she was throwing Reyes' way, "that all your alterations up to present are within the Overwatch medical facility's due diligence. You are fully cleared for release and you can walk out of that door tomorrow, if you would like."  
  
"Huh." Genji sounded surprised.  
  
"But think of what's waiting for you out there," Reyes was speaking now, his tone low. "Your family cast you out. Your brother tried to kill you. We could give you a home here. You didn't take to the expectations your clan had upon you. You could have a cause to fight for, here."  
  
Dr. Ziegler didn't miss a beat. "You would be able to apply to our protection programs, of course, since you were grievously injured by the Shimada clan, which is one of Overwatch's designated high-threat organizations. We could set you up with a new life somewhere, wherever you'd like to go. You can be miles away from the people who hurt you."  
  
"Your limb prosthetics are only for functionary purposes," Reyes said. "You could lead a perfectly fine civilian life with them. But there is so much more we could do. Our cybernetics department are some of the best in the world. They could rebuild you from the ground up, and give you more power than you've ever had."  
  
"This is," Dr. Ziegler answered, in a tone that conveyed her disappointment in Reyes, "An incredibly invasive and irreversible procedure. There are rounds of screening before you can even be considered. I definitely don't feel it's ethical to offer it to our patient at the moment."  
  
There was a moment of silence. Then, Reyes. "Genji," he said. "Your clan has its hands in almost every large-scale criminal activity around the world. It had no love for you. You can help us shut it down, with what you know. And your brother? He tried to kill you. Don't you want to take revenge-"  
  
And there was the sound of chair legs scraping across the floor as, Jesse surmised, Genji had stood up very quickly. He strained to hear, but there was no further noise for several long seconds.  
  
Finally he could hear Genji's soft, low voice. "Thank you very much for the offer, Dr. Ziegler. I truly appreciate everything you've done for me." and then a pause. "And you, Mr..."  
  
"Gabriel Reyes," Reyes answered.  
  
"Mr. Reyes," Genji said. "I will accept your offer. Not because I fear the outside. Not because I desire revenge upon my clan. But because I want to become stronger." There was a pause. "If joining your organization will make me stronger, then I will gladly accept."  
  
Dr. Ziegler must have looked dismayed, because Genji spoke to her next: "Dr. Ziegler, I trust that if I will undergo this cybernetic process, I will be under your care for the whole time?"  
  
Dr. Ziegler's voice had softed somewhat. "Of course, Genji."  
  
Reyes's voice sounded quite a bit more upbeat when he spoke up next. "Now, then, there are a few things for you to sign..." And their voices receded out of the door of the meeting room, and further along to the administration wings, Jesse figured. He got out from the suspicious eavesdropping corner but wandered around that meeting room for a bit, until Reyes came back for him.  
  
"Why did I make you listen to that." Reyes hit him with it immediately. Pop quiz.  
  
"You know I hated meetings and it was a punishment." Reyes looked unamused. "You wanted to show me what a stuck-up Dr. Ziegler is." Reyes was tapping his foot now and looked distinctly close to angry. "Alright, alright! You wanted me to get a figure on the new kid."  
  
"Because...?"  
  
"Because, oh!" Realization clicked into Jesse's head. "We're going to be working together?"  
  
Reyes nodded. "You've studied him on your recon missions before, but he's a different person now. What do you make of him?"  
  
Jesse thought back to the green-haired boy driving a motorbike in the streets leading up to Hanamura Temple, and the blood-soaked mess he'd carried back to HQ, and then the hurt boy in the hospital bed and the one tripping in physiotherapy, and finally the boy who stood in that meeting room.  
  
"He's hyperfocusing on fighting and being strong, because he's lost so much, so he needs an anchor," Jesse said.  
  
"And that means?"  
  
"It means keep an eye on him, because loving to fight can compromise a mission." Jesse said. He studies Reyes for his reaction and hopes that he got full marks.  
  
Reyes nodded and Jesse felt a surge of pride in his pop quiz taking skills. "It also means," Reyes said, "that it would be nice for him to have something else to focus on as well. Build some rapport with him and see what he likes. Dismissed." And just like that, he walks away.  
  
Jesse grinned. His new mission is to hang out with the new kid. "Got it, Chief."


End file.
